And The Kids Have It

Upon arriving at my beach of choice today, I had a momentary irritation seeing school busses lining the parking lot. As soon as I got out of my car I could barely hear the ocean waves over the screams and screeches of kids. Deciding to not let it get the better of me, I walked a good ways down the beach to put some distance between the throng of middle schoolers and myself. Turns out I didn't walk far enough, as I encounter another, smaller group of kids. No bother, I knew they'd be leaving in a little while anyway based on the time.

During the forty-five minutes they were there, I observed that not much has changed since I was that age. The cliques are the same, and just from sheer attitude I could tell which were which. As far as I could tell, despite the obvious divisions, most of the kids were well behaved. Definitely kids, but they weren't out of control or anything. I laughed to myself at how quiet it got once they headed back to their busses.

I settled a little deeper into the sand and prepared to relax for an hour on the much less crowded shore. Evidently, this was not the day for relaxing, because not five minutes before kids vacated the area a trio of obnoxious college girls had arrived. I had originally thought they were just loud because it was hard to hear much over the kids, but even after the schools left the volume persisted. Now, I'm far from a prude or a Debbie Do-gooder, but cracking open a few Coronas ("Can you grab me the lime", "Did we bring cups", "Oh well, we can just wrap them in towels") not five feet from teachers and students seems a tad bit inappropriate. Never mind that state parks are 'no glass' areas.

For an hour I lay on my towel, trying to focus on the waves, but my ears were assaulted with "Oh. My. God.", "so her boyfriend had GPS tracking on her phone", "I'm the chunkiest I've ever been"(followed by) "I brought the chips!", and an endless barrage of valley girlish drivel that had me wishing the kids had stayed. Finally, I couldn't stand the annoying blathering any longer, and I packed up my shit and left the beach.

By no means was the day a wash. I did spend quality time with the sunshine, and I learned a bit of a lesson. The next time I arrive at a beach and see a slew of school busses, I won't groan or roll my eyes. Listening to kids have fun is far more welcoming than having no choice but to overhear a trio of self-absorbed, shallow bubbleheads and their immature banter.